Popularity of skating

Popularity of skating

In 1994, I remember reading that figure skating received the second-highest
TV ratings of all sports. Does anyone have any recent statistics on
skating's popularity? The reason I ask is because soon I will be trying to
sell my skating novel to agents and editors. Although the book is accessible
to a general readership (in other words, there's a lot more to the story
than school figures, triple jumps, and medal ceremonies), my primary
audience will be skating fans. Therefore, I need some stats as to how many
people are currently watching this sport.

Thanks to anyone who can help me out!

Re: Popularity of skating

Jen Ly - I think back in '94, the media was going bananas with the Nancy/Tonya thing in pages off the sport pages. It got curiosity going among the non-fans of figure skating. Interest was at its peak - for the Sport? or for the alleged criminal acts by young ladies?. This curosity continued with an upsurge in Pro skating competitions on Sunday afternoons. However, interest declined since none of the competitions had any prestige, except for fans who loved watching their favs do crazy things on ice. By 2000, the Pro comps went the way of bad sitcoms. (TV producers are relentless in dealing with non-revenue producing shows.)

However, some of those curious in '94 actually went on to watch the sport at the Olympics and figure skating added some new fans based on their interest in the sport.

It appears to me that the stats for amateur figure skating championships still attract enough viewers to warrant time on TV. (I do believe that Pro competitions have to reinvent themselves.)

I would love to find out the stats for Nats, Worlds, GPs and Olympics.

Does figure skating surpass Oly Hockey or Oly Gymnastics?

Joe

Re: Popularity of skating

Try reading Frozen Assets. According to the book, we are on a decline in popularity. The American audience is where the money is. Accually a new scoring system was suposed to have been in the works before the judging scandle. It was being changed so that non skating audiences could understand the scoring. It was feared that the lack of understanding of the scoring system could decrease the ratings for figure skating. If you do read the book, wait until you see what ABC is paying Michelle Kwan to compete in competitions.
Daniel and Little Lulu

Re: Popularity of skating

Daniel and/or Little Lulu,

I'd love to read Frozen Assets - but don't have time (maybe post o-chem leisure reading); however, you piqued my curiosity - just how much does ABC pay Michelle to skate in competitions?

tharrtell

Re: Popularity of skating

tharrtell
I believe that the dollar amount is $200 million for 10 years. Maybe this is why she has no intention of turning pro.
Daniel and Little Lulu

Re: Popularity of skating

Kzarah - From what you say, it appears that Figure Skating is losing it's popularity. I'm not surprised. The dumb approach to Pro competitions killed the interest in what should have been more popular then the amateur competitions . The Sunday TV afternoon competitions of Golf, Basketball, Auto Racing are all taken seriously. The Figure Skating competions came across as entertainment - not sport. It seemed like it didn't matter who won or what team won as long as one act was more giddy than the previous. Golf sportsmen are playing for a living - no silliness here!

As for Frozen Assets, I can believe MK is making a fortune in order to keep, at least, the amateur skating alive. She is the first name in Figure Skating. We, imo, actually owe her homage for keeping the sport alive.

OK, I'll get a copy.

Joe

Re: Popularity of skating

Good heavens! 200 million dollars? That's almost as much as some baseball players make! You go, girl!!!

I wonder if Murk Lund actually knows this or if he is just guessing. Do you mean that Michelle is contractually committed to keep on competing until she's 33?

Mathman

Re: Popularity of skating

Joe,
Actually, I believe it was Dick Buttons who got the pro competitions started. There were a number of pro competitions through out the year. But, no one had to qualify, they were invited to compete. It was the same skaters at every competition with the same numbers at each. High scores were give to all the skaters, regarless of their content or how they skated. The general public got bored. Were the 6.0 point system was difficult to understand by the same token, all the high scores given to skaters was equally hard to understand.
Mathman444,
It seems as though the contract was signed a few years ago, so, she would not need to compete until she is thiry three. As far as the $200 million. It may be exagerated but maybe not. There is a lot of money to be made by networks for figure skating competitions. So, maybe it is true. If it is not $200 million, I sure it is very high. So michelle Does not really need to turn pro.
Daniel and Little Lulu

Re: Popularity of skating

Kzarah - Dick should have taken more interest in what he was establishing. Is there an umbrella organization which handles Pro skating? If so they could rewrite their rules of play. Make it more a sport and less of an entertainment. I believe there is already entertainment embodied in all sports. No need for silliness except in Ice Shows.

MK with all that dough! Wow. One doesn't need an Oly gold but must be able to break all attendance records.

Joe

Re: Popularity of skating

Everyone here knows that I have a lot of respect for Michelle, but I really don't think that she is the skater who keeps amature skating "alive". Maybe she does in America to a certain extent.She didn't compete(nothing wrong with it) as much as the other top ladie last season and people still tuned to skating on TV and the same thing will happen next season. Wouldn't it be naive if people stopped watching the sport on TV because Michelle is not competing anymore? Skating was popular before Michelle became a top competitior and skating will remain popular(like i'm going to listen to Christine Brennen) when Michelle decides to hang her skates.

As for Michelle receiving 200 million for a 10 year contract, i'll probably agree that she does receive money from ABC but 200 million, you got to be kidding me. Shaq is currently receiving 107 million for a 7 year contract with the LA Lakers, do you really expect me to believe that a figure skater makes more money then NBA's top gun? Sorry to sound a little skeptical here but NBA is far more popular then figure skating in America and around the world.
Plus, if Michelle was receiving that much money from ABC, plus her endorsement deals and prize monies, don't you think she would've been in Forb's "Most powerful woman" list. Oprah's assets are about 500 million and she has made that list everytime.

*Don't take my post the wrong way*

Re: Popularity of skating

Excidra, believe it or not many fans becames a FS fan because of Michelle. I for one and several of my friends and even friends's friends. I did watch FS occasionally if there is one happened to be on when I turn on TV. But never schedule time around to follow the events. And never bothered to learn what type of jump, edges, etc. It was from Michelle (94 or 95) that I start following the events. Then after the SLC so many controversy talking about her skating that I start studying the technique side of figure skating; part of which is to convince myself that Michelle is still the one to beat. And during the process I start to appreciate good skaters like Irina, Fummie, etc. Many of my friends became FS fans like that.

Re: Popularity of skating

Hello!, I was just lurking and saw this question. I read an article a few months ago that said that interest in figureskating is declining, and that interest in Pro figureskating is non-exsistant! The Tonya and Nancy frenzy is over, but I think that a lot of people stuck around after that. In comparison it might look a kind of sparce, but compared to other sports events I think figureskating holds its own.

As for pro skating, I think the decline there has to do with the utter lack of any sort of real competition. The skaters (other than maybe three or four) don't seem motivated to improve their skating at all, nor do they, other than those few, work to grow artistically. Which is very unfortuante because that artistic growth was a big part of what the pros were <em>supposed</em> to be about. Instead all we saw were the same type of "<em>crowd pleasing</em>" programs which only bore people now, and skaters who seemed just as bored with themselves as the audience was with them. Many people have said that a wave of retiring amatures would save the pros, but its going to take a lot more than that! I mean how many times can we applaude when Candelloro rips his shirt off!?

Re: Popularity of skating

Jennifer:

As long as there is ice and ice skates available figure skating - or skating at least will never go out of vogue at least not here in Canada - and we have plenty of ice! There will always be an audience for your book. Don't worry.

Ladskater

Re: Popularity of skating

IMG currently controls non-amateur skating on TV. That's why we see the same pro skaters on all the shows since IMG invites the skaters they represent. Unfortunately, the Professional Skating Union never got control before pro skating declined.

BTW, World Pro competition lost its cache after Dick Button sold it. The story is recounted in Lund's Frozen Assets. I'm sure he's regretting that decision.

Re: Popularity of skating

Thanks for posting, Jayjen. About professional skating, I have been wondering about that, too -- what form would a professional competition have to take to be a "real" competition. If we mean, how many triple jumps can you squeeze into a four-minute program, that's eligible skating, and in any case the pros can't keep up with the quadmeisters, etc.

A contest of "artistic-ness?" How would it be judged? Would it be like two ballet companies going at it in a battle of the tutus? In pro-ams they have to put restrictions on the number of tricks allowed in order to give the old geezers a chance. Would this be like the senior circuit in golf, where the course is watered down to keep the score's respectably low?

Maybe this is the natural course of events in this sport. After your eligible career you join a tour or do TV specials. I don't know about Philippe Cadelloro's shirt, but I never get tired of seeing Brian Orser or Dorothy Hamill perform.

Mathman

PS. Come to think of it, I did see Dorothy Hamill competing in a pro-am team competition last year. She did the most gorgeous single Axel you ever saw. Got scores in the 5.7-5.8 range for technical, 5.9s for presentation -- about the same as Michelle, as I recall. I assume the sponsors told the judges, look, chumps, Dorothy don't skate for no 5.4.

re:

mzheng,

I'm glad that Michelle was the skater that made you watch figure skating, because lord knows we need more fans so TV networks can make space for figure skating in their schedule. But just like how Michelle made you watch the sport, other skaters have done the same to me and many others. So if credit is being given to Michelle, let's give credit to all skaters and that includes those who are at the bottom of the ladder because they do have fans watching the sport as well.

Edited to add: If any Michelle Kwan fan wants to throw tomatos at me, now is your time.

JayJen said:
I mean how many times can we applaude when Candelloro rips his shirt off!?
:rollin: :rollin:

Re: re:

Excidra - Devoted fans of figure skating will always be around, just as the devoted fans of Curling will be around. The question asked was Why the decline in figure skating today? and the decline is fact! Not from the devoted fans but of those who lost interest in it. Apparently, there is not enough interest to sell the product for TV.

However, if you are correct, I am happy to note that there has been no decline in interest in countries outside the US. Again we are searching for statistics to see if there is a decline and if it is only in the US.

Maybe the book Frozen Assets, if they did any research, will show some proof that figure skating has declined World wide or only in the US or not at all.

As for MK, whoever gave her money, her father is happy. How much? I doubt we will ever know, but one can assume it was a hefty bundle. She is extremely popular in a country that dotes on money.

Joe

Re: Moneybags Michelle

Excidra, I, too, can't get my mind around $200,000,000. Does the whole sport of ice skating generate that much money? Maybe it is exaggerated. I have read elsewhere that Michelle makes about $5 million a year from all sources (= a paltry $50,000,000 over 10 years, LOL.) And this includes lucrative endorsement deals with high rollers Disney and Chevrolet.

You can't really compare her earnings with Shaq's, however. Shaq makes $107,000,000 from the Lakers for playing basketball (he would make more, except that league rules prohibit it). In turn, the television networks pay money to the NBA for rights to broadcast the games, some of which filters down to the Lakers. ABC has a similar deal with the USFSA and the ISU. I don't think that they pay individual skaters to participate in ISU sanctioned events. But I might be wrong about that. There were a lot of rumors flying around about how much money Michelle got, and from whom, for agreeing to do Skate America last year.

Tiger Woods makes a few million dollars a year playing golf, and $60,000,000 a year selling shoes. I don't think that the television networks pay him directly for playing in tournaments, even though it is his presence that guarentees an audience.

I guess I'll have to read Frozen Assets after all. It got such bad reviews (same old, same old, nothing in it that wasn't common knowledge, etc.) that I hadn't been too interested until now.

Mathman

re:

Joe,

I think I speak for all Canadians when I say skating is still going strong here in Canada. With Bourne and Kraatz winning a world title, i'm sure more Canadian ice-dancers will stick through the hardship(Wing and Lowe) because now they have hope that they can win a world title if they hang in there, as well as S&P winning the gold medal in SLC.Whether the interest in skating has declined in other countries, I really don't know. But take Russia for example, skating is only shown after mid-night, had they shown skating in the after-noon or so, i'm sure they would get more viewers which would then help us identify if interest in skating is declining or increasing in Russia. I would go on to say that only die-hard Russian skating fans(which is probably just a few) would stay up to watch figure skating in the middle of the night.
The point i'm trying to make is, I don't really think(just a guess here) the interest of skating has declined in say European Countries because of the little coverage they were receiving anyway. Am I making any sense here?

As for skating in America, i'm sure it wouldn't be hard to figure out if interest in skating is declining in USA. Just compare attendance records, TV ratings and they should easily come up with an answer. Same thing can be done in Canada as well.

Mathman,

I thought Michelle didn't receiving an appearance fee for competing at Skate America. Has it been confirmed? Because I was/still am very skeptical about Michelle attending an event which would began in two weeks without prior notice. I know she was prepared and all but she was to compete at major international competition and the time she was given to prepare her self mentally and probably phyiscally was little. If she didn't receive anything(and I think she did, considering she saved their butts) then maybe her camp should've asked for something. Don't quote me on this but I think Irina receives something for competing at 'Cup of Russia'(which is held in her city) year after year, she is very popular with the audience and can bring people(Russians) to come and see her skate.

*Sorry for the long post.

Re: Moneybags Michelle

If Michelle were making 200 Million wouldn't it seem that she would be - forced to do the GP's to be able to earn that 200M. I doubt they would pay her that amount of money to do Nationals and Worlds only.

Michelle seems to be pretty closed mouth about her assets. I doubt Mark Lund would be privy to that information.

When Michelle was going to school, she bought herself a condo for $500,000.00. Wouldn't she have bought herself a place more on the order of what Tara did if she made that kind of money. $500,000.00 condo in California isn't that special. Not when you consider the cost of real estate in CA.

Maybe that was a typo in Frozen Assets or just plain speculation on his part.